**This post about winter fine motor activities for the classroom includes affiliate links.**
There’s something special about winter (even for us in California) so I am definitely including some winter fine motor activities in our classroom this month. Here in California we’re snow obsessed even if we don’t see a lot of it, so I made sure it was a staple in these activities. We have so much fun with these activities that my students barely even realize they’re building their motor skills.
1. Snowman Dot Painting
We love dot painting in our classroom. I put together this snowman to paint and I love that it’s a print and go activity. I just print out copies of the snowman template, then I grab some paint and Q-Tips for my students to use to paint. The goal for my students is to dot inside the circles to complete the picture. Sometimes I print this activity on blue paper so my students can use white paint to make their snowman.
2. Snowman in the Snow
This snowman in the snow activity is part of my winter scissor skills box. Students color the snowman, then cut the snow pile and glue it to their snowman template. I love to see how creative the snowmen my students create come out. Once we’re done, I’ll usually incorporate a writing activity for my students to describe their snowmen.
3. Snowflake Stickers
Like I said, we’re obsessed with snow here in California (probably because we never see it) and this activity doesn’t disappoint. I made a quick winter scene template that I print out for my students. Then I grabbed some snowflake shaped foam stickers. My students add the stickers to their scene to create a winter wonderland. Peeling the paper off of these stickers take some serious dexterity of the fingers that helps my students develop their motor skills.
4. Snowball Scoop
I love to put together a bin for my students to use in their fine motor center. This bin is filled with cotton balls and I grabbed some tweezers and scoopers for my students to use. I made some snowball templates with numbers. The goal for my students is to count out the same number of snowballs to match the snowballs. I also made some blank snowballs for my students who are beginning counters so they can practice 1:1 correspondence.
5. Ice Skate Pom Pom Match
Some of my students have really mastered color identification lately, so we’re using all the generalization activities we can think of. I like the fine motor twist on this activity where my students need to use their pincher fingers (or tweezers) to pick up poms and match them to the same color ice skate templates that I printed out.
6. Winter Puzzles
This is another activity from my winter scissor skills boxes. These puzzles are a class favorite. They come in 2, 3, and 5 piece puzzles that are already scrambled up. I print out the templates and trim then to fit into pencil boxes. My students will choose a puzzle and cut straight lines to cut the pieces apart. Then they will arrange the pieces to make a picture and glue them to the template. Cutting straight lines is essential to developing scissor skills and this is a really fun way to practice the skill in the classroom.
7. Melted Snowman Art Project
I love incorporating art projects in the classroom. They’re fun for students to complete and they involve so many fine motor and communication skills. To complete this project, I give each student a piece of blue paper. They snip strips of white paper into smaller squares and glue them all over the paper. Then I will cut out some small black circles and orange triangles for students to add to their melted snow pile.
Teacher tip: If students need an added visual, I’ll print the page with target spaces for them to add their paper squares to. I have some students who will glue 2 pieces and be done and others who will not stop gluing until the paper has turned white. This added visual definitely helps.
8. Winter Beads
My students really like beads this year. Whether they’re hunting for them in theraputty or stringing them on pipe cleaners, it seems to be a hit of an activity. I grabbed some wintery beads from my collection (whites, blues, silvers, etc.) and some pipe cleaners and let my students have at it! For students who are starting to recognize patterns we created patterns on our pipe cleaners. For others, we counted how many beads we were putting on our pipe cleaners. With another group of students we worked on finding beads by color. There are really some great skills you can work on with beads and their smaller size is perfect for developing the dexterity our students need.
9. Winter Fun Scissor Skills
Once my students are cutting simple shaped regularly I like to push them to start cutting out some more complex shapes. This winter fun box is part of my scissor skills boxes. I prepare the templates and cutting pages for my students. They color the background then cut out the kids to place in the scene. Of course, when they’ve completed the art project we’ll talk about it and sometimes we’ll even write a story about what the kids are doing in the scene.
10. Snowman Buttons
We’re really working on colors and counting in our classroom right now, so I put together two snowman templates to use with these materials. I made snowmen with numbers on their hats for counting and snowmen with different color hats for students working on color identification. Then I grabbed my button collection and we either counted out buttons to match the number on the hat or we matched the color of the hats.
These are 10 of my favorite winter fine motor activities for the classroom. Want to grab some free printables? They’re over in the resource library for you to download and print for your classroom!
If your’e using these activities in your classroom I want to see them! Snap a picture and share it on Instagram, then tag me in your posts.
